Chapter 5
At the same time, Angela flinched at the sound of her own voice.
It was not her voice.
“Still dazed, I see.”
Frowning, Dylan murmured and rose from his seat. As if losing interest in her, he turned his gaze elsewhere.
What on earth was happening?
Dazed, Angela let the knights help her sit up.
‘I was definitely outside the capital with him….’
The surroundings looked familiar. It was the capital.
Had she somehow drifted from the countryside villa all the way back here?
‘Why does Dylan call me a young lady?’
And she was wearing a dress that wasn’t hers.
Though she was drenched, as if pulled from water, she wasn’t in the simple shift she remembered escaping in.
‘Clothes like this…’
Everything she wore had once been chosen to satisfy Edward’s preferences.
So why was she wearing a dress he had never gifted her?
A chill ran through her even though the weather wasn’t cold. She clasped her hands together and flinched at how icy they felt.
“You must be cold.”
Dylan noticed and spoke flatly. Angela felt his attitude was far too indifferent.
He hadn’t been like this the last time they met—had something happened since then?
While she was thinking, Dylan removed his jacket. Unexpectedly, he draped it over her shoulders.
“The physician has been summoned. He should arrive shortly.”
His tone remained stiff, but it was enough for Angela.
“Thank you… Duke Alaster.”
“Think nothing of it.”
‘Could I ask Dylan what happened to explain this?’
Just as she was thinking, Kevin made a suggestion to Dylan.
“Duke Dylan, wouldn’t it be better to take her straight to the estate?”
The estate?
At the word, Edward surfaced in Angela’s mind.
‘No….’
Just the thought of seeing him again made her shudder. She could not return there.
“W-wait—”
“They’ve finally come to retrieve her.”
The moment Angela spoke again in a voice that wasn’t hers, Dylan cut across her words.
Whether he hadn’t heard her or simply ignored her, he stared at something ahead and instructed his knights.
“Help the young lady up.”
Angela followed Dylan’s gaze and saw mounted knights approaching. Along with them came a carriage, which stopped nearby. A woman in plain clothing stepped out.
“Lady!”
The unfamiliar woman, eyes brimming with tears, took Angela’s cold hands.
“We searched everywhere for you. How did you end up here… heavens, you must have been terrified.”
“Who are you…?”
She had intended to ask who dared call her “lady.” But Angela realized immediately.
This woman was Greta, Penelope’s personal maid.
‘How do I even know the name of the Kruger young lady’s maid?’
Feeling even more unsettled, Angela heard Dylan speak to Greta.
“So you were searching for her. Then I need not explain the situation.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Greta added that the young lady’s attendants were waiting anxiously upstream for news.
Dylan nodded curtly, understanding, and issued instructions.
“Her body temperature seems quite low. When you arrive, summon a physician to examine her thoroughly.”
“Yes. I will report this to the master. Thank you very much, Your Grace.”
Greta bowed politely and supported Angela. In an instant, Angela found herself surrounded by the Kroger household’s knights guiding her toward the carriage.
“Wait a moment. I—”
In a situation she could not comprehend—being treated as the young lady of a marquess’s house—Angela turned to Dylan in confusion.
Their eyes met.
Dylan offered a brief farewell.
“Rest well, Lady Kruger.”
‘What?’
Angela’s eyes widened in shock.
Kruger?
Everyone around her seemed to be lying.
Unable to believe it, she stepped into the carriage and checked the mirror with Greta’s help.
To her astonishment, the reflection was indeed Penelope. Though the pale, anxious expression differed from the Penelope she knew, it was unmistakably her.
“How… how can this be?”
Only then did Dylan’s distant behavior make sense.
A headache struck, as if from the sheer impossibility of it all.
“Ugh.”
“Lady, are you all right?”
The moment Angela winced, memories surfaced in her mind.
She saw Penelope, dressed for an outing, looking into a mirror wearing the same dress Angela now wore.
‘It happened this morning.’
Strangely, Angela understood the unfamiliar situation.
She knew everything—how Penelope had gone boating with other ladies and suffered an accident.
Penelope’s memories had ceased the moment she fell into the water.
‘The boat struck a rock and the young lady fell in.’
But how had Angela ended up inside her body?
Dazed by the impossible turn of events, she was taken to the marquess’s estate.
Though examined, she was in good health.
After dismissing the physician, Angela faced the marquess of the Kruger household and Penelope’s older brother, Ralph.
“Penelope. We were so worried when we heard you fell into the river.”
“Even though you promised, you went boating on a day like this? Always pretending to be clever, and yet….”
Unsure how to address them, Angela apologized.
“I’m sorry….”
‘Are you teasing me right now, brother?’
Normally, Penelope would have responded with sharp annoyance.
Her uncharacteristically meek reply surprised the marquess and Ralph.
“She must still be in shock,” the marquess said.
“She should rest,” Ralph added.
Fortunately, Angela’s answer became an excuse for solitude.
As the family left, she checked the wall clock—4 p.m.
The accident at the villa had occurred in the early morning.
It had taken hours before she entered Penelope’s body.
Since Penelope had been moving around while Angela was submerged, it seemed unlikely that Penelope’s soul had taken over her body.
‘So the young lady might have died in that accident…?’
Lost in thought, she heard a voice.
“Oh, Penelope.”
As the marquess was leaving with Ralph, he turned back.
“I heard the Duchess of Devonshire passed away.”
Angela’s heart sank.
“A fall, they say? She was still so young… how tragic.”
The marquess mentioned that the funeral would be in three days before leaving.
“She… died?”
Alone in the room, Angela murmured softly.
She had already accepted the possibility of death when she jumped, so hearing the news should not have shocked her—yet it felt strange.
At the same time, she remembered Edward’s expression when he saw the divorce papers she had handed him.
“Why can’t you understand? I have no intention of letting you go.”
That day, Edward had torn the papers apart without hiding his displeasure.
“As long as I live, the only person you can be with is me. Wear the dresses I give you, adorn yourself with jewels, and remain beautiful beside me. That is your duty.”
Then he confined her to her room for a full month.
She could not leave the estate unless accompanied by him, and living only in the bedroom drove her to the brink of madness.
“I’d like to go out, Edward.”
Eventually, Angela pretended to abandon the idea of divorce and leaned into his embrace.
“Is there somewhere you want to go?”
“No. Anywhere is fine—as long as I’m with you.”
Her marriage to Edward had been a trap—one that suffocated her and denied her freedom.
Though escape had once seemed impossible…
“Do you remember the villa you mentioned before?”
Now Angela Devonshire no longer existed.
Who would imagine her soul surviving in another body when her flesh had died?
‘I am free now.’
The thought made her heart flutter.
Though she had never imagined becoming Penelope, she was certain of one thing—the freedom she had long desired.
At last, it was farewell to her husband.
